This page is one of a series introducing railway staff who worked in and around Stoke-on-Trent before 1939. They’ve been researched as part of the ‘Tracks through Time’ initiative – which you can read more about here.
The workers featured were largely selected from staff who appear in the Railway Work, Life & Death project database of accidents to pre-1939 British and Irish railway workers.
Please note that a fuller life story is under preparation – coming soon!
Was it really Thomas Worrall’s ‘own want of care’ that led to his death?
He was an experienced railwayman, so likely he knew the dangers of railway work. By 1915 Thomas had worked as a North Staffordshire Railway carriage cleaner for around 30 years. Yet on 20 January 1915 he was to die in an incident.
He was coming on duty at Stoke station just before 6.30am, from Glebe Street. To get to the station, he had to cross some railway lines. As he did so, he was knocked down by a guard’s van being pushed by an engine.
The official investigation found Thomas responsible, for failing to use sufficient care. Standard for its time, today the incident would be understood very differently – not least as there wasn’t a safe walking route to his work. Thomas left a widow and several adult children.